Daughter number 1 is getting married! There are 66 days left until the big event. This week we started getting down to the details. She finished up the invitations and I mailed them out today. It makes everything a bit more real. I’ve been put in charge of the war against the mosquito population in the walnut orchard. I purchased 40 small yellow buckets with citronella candles in them and 30 tiki torches with enough oil to burn them for 7 hours. Keep in mind the only car we own is a Miata. Here are a few pictures that may make you laugh.

I am finally getting to a point where I think I can put my life back in order. After Man of My Dreams retired from the Air Force four years ago, we moved from Florida to California. Back to the state we were born and grew up. Our oldest daughter was finishing her last year of college at Oklahoma Baptist University and our youngest daughter had just graduated from high school and was off to start college at the University of Southern California. My mother, who had lived with us for several years since my dad had passed away, was aging and to a point that we knew we needed to find a place for her where she would have constant care and supervision. We were in a major transitional phase as a family. There was so much to be done and it all had to be done at once.

Both daughters remained in Florida for the summer. We went on to California to begin the process of starting a new life. My mother went to Chicago to stay with my niece and her family until we had made arrangements for her in California. We were downsizing our household tremendously. It was an overwhelming task, separating out one daughters things to go to Oklahoma and the other daughters things to go to Southern California and our things to go to Northern California and my mothers things to go to a separate location in Northern California. During that time I knew that life would never be the same for us as a family. I had no idea just how different life would be.

We moved from an almost 2500 square foot house into about a 1400 square foot condo. Needless to say, we had to get rid of a lot of stuff. In many ways it was liberating. In other ways it was difficult to let go of the past. When we finally moved in and began to unpack I found myself just putting things in closets and cupboards and hanging pictures helter skelter on the walls were I found nails. This was an unusual way for me to unpack. In previous moves I was very organized and deliberate about where everything went. This move, I knew I was going to be here more than two and a half years and I could go back and organize things and take my time. Four years later I still have not gotten to it. Something has always gotten in the way. I think it is time now to begin the process.

There really isn’t a lot of clutter in the house. It just needs to be organized better and decorated the way I would like it to be. I have started putting a plan together. I want to map out a room by room plan and then begin the process of decorating and organizing. These are the things I used to enjoy doing. The last four years it has been difficult to find the time and energy to do them. When I look back at all we have been through as a family during that time, I recognize the changes and embrace them and I have learned to be thankful for them.

Oh my! It has been a very long time since I posted anything. So much has happened. So much joy. So much pain. Too much to even begin to explain. I think it is time to begin again here. I don’t as yet know how or what. I just know that I want to begin again and try to figure out this whole blogging process and work on my photography some. Life seems to be moving at a rapid pace. I’m wishing for it to slow down. Does anyone else feel that way? I now have two daughters graduated from college and working. I feel good that I have raised two contributing members to society. That’s where the joy comes from. I started this process a year and a half ago, but there were some set backs along the way. That’s where the pain comes in. So, bear with me as I begin again. Thanks.

I am back from a few weeks of allergies, entertaining my dear friend, and traveling to her house to help with a few projects around her house. In spite of the allergies, I have had a wonderful two weeks. I always enjoy spending time with this particular friend. She makes me laugh, she makes me cry, she is easy to talk to and bear my soul too. And she does the same with me. It is good to have a friend like that. It seems that the last four years have been so busy for the both of us that we have not been able to really spend that sort of time together until now.

It occurred to me that we have been friends for 28 years now. We met in college. I knew her husband before she did. She knew my husband before I did. Our worlds came together in a Bible Study group on campus. Our husbands were roommates for a while. Man of My Dreams(MOMD) and I were married and she and her young man decided to follow suit. We each had an apartment on campus until graduation. It was a fun time.

After graduation, the economy was much like it is now. Jobs were hard to find. My friend and her husband had moved to Bakersfield and we were sharing a house with my brother and his little boy. When I was 6 months pregnant, we decided to move to Bakersfield. Our friends were living in her parents old house. In order to make ends meet for all of us, we decided to share the house and the expenses. I would not recommend this to most people. For the four of us it was a great arrangement.

Three months later our first daughter was born. She had four parents instead of two. This arrangement lasted until “the girlie” was about 9 months old. Those were hard times financially, but they were good times with special friends. I don’t think we really consider each other just friends… it’s more like we are family.

Over the years we have seen our families grow and weathered many storms together. Even though we have moved all over the country we stayed in touch. These friends are the only people, with the exception of my dear mother-in-law, who have traveled to visit us in every place we have lived. That speaks volumes to me.

We had two daughters and they had four daughters and a son. Their oldest daughter and our youngest daughter remind me of my friend and I. Both of these daughters are engaged and getting married within the next year. My friend and I were in each other’s weddings and our daughters will do the same. I can not express how happy that makes me.

We have experienced a lot of life together. I hope and pray that we have many more life experiences ahead of us.

My mom was 38 years old by the time I arrived. This is the only picture that I know of my mother holding me as a baby. There are not many pictures that exist of me as a baby. I am the youngest of six. I am sure she did not have much time to sit and hold me and I am sure there was not much money to be spent on film at that point in my parents lives. This was taken on Easter Sunday Morning 1963… after Sunrise Service at Knott’s Berry Farm and before Sunday Morning Worship Service at whichever Southern Baptist Church my dad was pastoring at the time.

This is my first Mother’s Day without her in 48 years. Some days it is still hard to believe she is gone from this earth. She was not the kind of mom that baked cookies, but she was always there when I came home from school.

When I was 7 years old, she was in a horrible car accident. We were not sure she would live… she did survive, but she was never really the same after that. She recovered, but the accident left its scars, physical and emotional. She had good days and bad days as I was growing up. By the time I was in 5th grade I was pretty much able to clean the house, do the grocery shopping for the week, cook meals, and do the laundry. I am not complaining. My older sisters had moved out and were married by then and those things just fell to me. I am actually very thankful that my mom taught me how to do those things and do them well. She was a perfectionist and she was hard to please. However; it made me who I am today. It made me the woman that my husband adores and is thankful for.

The day before my mom passed away, I was talking to one of her younger sisters. My aunt took me off guard when she said in her sweet, southern-belle accent, (she is from Alabama) “When your mother is gone it will be time for you to rest. You have been taking care of her your whole life.” I do not think I ever looked at it that way. She was my mom and it was just the way things were. I have been pondering my aunts words these last few months. I have rested. And as I have looked back over the years with my mom I realize that I did take care of her. I would gladly do it again. If she had been taken from me in that accident, I would be someone completely different. God was gracious to me and left her here on this earth so I would not grow up motherless.

Today is Mother’s Day… be thankful for the mother God has given you and let her know that you love her.

You never know when she might not be there…

we are not promised tomorrow…

but we have today…

we have this moment…

use it wisely…

and if you can, choose to love her…

and believe that she is giving you the best of what she has been given.

One day we were strolling through the Marais and we stumbled upon this amazing, new shop that sold everything soap.

I found myself getting lost in all the pretty colored soaps and the fragrances were just amaZING! It was the prettiest, little store. I fell in love.

Everything in the store was displayed in a manner that caused me to want to buy everything I saw.

And who can resist a chalkboard… not me!

There was a soap that corresponded with every color in the rainbow.

I was hoping they had a website… but they do not yet… the owner said she was working on it. I will keep looking online for it.

I am secretly hoping that my “Paris Girl” brings me a little somethin’, somethin’ back from this little place when she returns home. (hint, hint), okay maybe I am NOT subtle… but she knows that about me anyway. If not, I will just have to take another trip to get it myself.

Yes. I know it has been a while since I last posted anything… you know how those pregnancy scares can take it out of you. Anyhoo here is what we were up to yesterday. Man of my dreams and I went to his mother’s apartment and worked on her patio/garden we have been promising her since last summer.

I forgot to take a real before picture. Here is when I remembered to start taking pictures.

I found this little table and two chairs last summer at Goodwill with plans to paint it white.

Here is a shot of the patio after we actually cleaned up some stuff and started digging.

Then we took a quick trip to the Ace Hardware Store in her little town. Where of course you run into Ten people she knows and have to say hi too… yesterday I met my husbands grade school principals wife… I love small town life. We went back to the apartment and started digging and upgrading the soil in the planter areas. Then I laid all the plants out for the “amazing husband” to put into the ground. He is such a perfectionist and does everything with such precision… I give him the vision and he executes. We make a great team.

After 5 hours of hard work here is the finished project…

Notice small, cutie pie niece in the mirror!

It was a fun way to spend the warmest day we have had so far this year. It was nice to make someone happy too. After the last two weeks of rain and a case of the doldrums I think I needed to get out and do something like this. Doing things for other people isn’t just for them… It is for us too. Today I feel much better about life and where I am headed… even if I am still not sure where that is exactly.